Over the past weekends I've been watching constantly Marcelo Bielsa's Marseille. Because of it's impeccable performances, earlier today I started navigating through posts and articles of the creator of those. I knew I shouldn't have been doing it; I was in the middle of designing an accounting lesson for my peers of BlendZ. Still, after about 30 minutes of reading, I sat in my laptop facing a 40-minute video report on his career.

It wasn't the first time I watched it, but I had to do it again. This time, as I did, I started thinking about different ideas and concepts. Constantly, people who were extremely close to him appeared on camera and through crazy examples said in extreme detail, conveyed an idea of what his character is. A reputation of a crazy guy is clear on him--they even call him "El Loco", but surely that isn't enough to admire him as I do now.

Passion towards work and desire for success stood out on each of those stories. As the examples came through, I started noticing some similarities between anecdotes in Bielsa's career and some we've experience in the IA. Here go some examples

Mr Topf's IA

In the early days of the IA, after a field trip to Innova Schools, a 30-minute bus ride back to school awaited for us. Because of how much Mr Topf wanted us to use time wisely, we had to read The Secret of the Seven Seeds during the bus ride.

In the IA, I've seen friends, who never did a single thing for school, work with effort and enthusiasm towards the projects. Some of those times, they helped me keep switched on, just like they were doing.

At the beginning of the IA, many of us might have whine because of having to work on something during break. Now, we've even voluntarily organized working days on a saturday.

Bielsa's Newells

When in the youth academy at Newells, his age level cohort finished training long after normal age groups finished, and trained under any conditions.Stakes didn't exist in that time, but he made his players bring sharpened broomsticks to facilitate training sessions.

When he arrived to Newells' first team, many of the players were young who came excited and wanting to earn a spot. In the other side, Martino was settled as on of the most important, and characterized because of low effort in training sessions. Bielsa made him run and give everything in every session, while others used him as an inspiration to do so equally. "If Martino runs we have no other option" they said.

Griffa, Newells' president at the time, had a habit of having a silent minute to calm down before eating dinner with his family. Coincidentally, during that time, Marcelo always arrived because he couldn't stand from sharing an idea he had in the moment, no matter how late it was. At first, Griffa's kids said "No nos deja en paz", but after getting to know him well, they ended up loving him.

It's sad that not everybody knows these stories. Reputations in these cases aren't complete until you know them extremely well. I've heard people criticize Mr. Topf and criticize Bielsa. But the coolest of all this is that they don't respond or try to hurt them. They aren't affected by these comments, and are just willing to speak with success. "Yeah, we just cut fruit and make smoothies all day", is what Mr. Topf said we could say when people started speaking about us only making smoothies rather than "working hard" when working on our smoothie startup. The value of character is amazing, and I am extremely proud to know well these two individuals who are constantly teaching me things that make me a better person.

Now I doubt, maybe, I shouldn't feel bad for watching these kind of videos, because they might end up being relevant and purposeful.

Hopefully, the IA will undergo the same success as he did, and we could see Corey as happy as we was after beating Rosario Central rather than as sad as he was after missing out the knockout phase of the 2002 World Cup with Argentina.

Gonchi, it's so cool that you're able to connect your passion for soccer and make it so relevant to the IA; the parallel comparison you elaborate on Mr. Topf and Bielsa makes your reflection genuine, vivid and authentic. I actually was engaged through out, even with my little knowledge on soccer. More so, you manage to keep it to the point. Awesome blog entry!

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F

20/10/2014 9:36am

Gonchi! What an interesting blog post! I think it's so cool that you are able to relate your passion of soccer to the IA. You managed to create an awesome comparison between soccer and the IA and managed to keep me interested in what I was reading, especially the soccer part, even though I have never been much of a soccer fan. I also like that it's not extremely long, it's quite concise and I applaud you for that! Awesome entry Gonchi!

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Corey Topf

26/10/2014 7:39pm

Thank you Gonchi! I have seen the growth in everyone as well, and I think it's the result of being surrounded by a group of people who care more and more about becoming better people and better learners.

You know, just last night the guy cutting my hair had a tattoo of scissors on his hand. I thought to myself, "Man, this guy must really take pride in what he does." It might not be the profession I'd choose, but the tattoo sent a cool message that he cared about his job.

Whether you go on to be a football manager, an engineer, an economist, or a CFO, my biggest dream for you--and everyone in the IA--is that you love what you do, whatever it is. Then we can all be called Los Locos. :)

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Passionate and dedicated soccer player and academically driven student.